Device for cutting and gluing gauze strips on book pad backs

ABSTRACT

A device for cutting and gluing gauze strips onto the backs of books which are moved past a rotating glue application roller. A gauze strip is fed into a cutting tool from a supply roll by means of a pair of feed rollers and cut into strips of the desired width. The strips are consecutively pressed onto an inclined conveyor which brings then into contact with the backs of the moving books.

March 14, 1972 BRENNER DEVICE FOR CUTTING AND GLUING GAUZE STRIPS ON BOOK PAD BACKS Filed April 4, 1969 INVENTOR. HERMAN/ BRENNE R BY AR TH 11 R Sum/a R12 ATTORAJE United States Patent 01 iice 3,649,414 DEVICE FOR CUTTING AND GLUING GAUZE STRIPS ON BOOK PAD BACKS Hermann Brenner, Kocherstetten, Germany, assignor to Walter Sigloch, Grossbuchbinderei, Kunzelsau, Germany Filed Apr. 4, 1969, Ser. No. 813,564 Claims priority, application Germany, Sept. 7, 1968,

P 17 86 258.7-27 Int. Cl. B32b 31/00 US. Cl. 156-521 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for cutting and gluing gauze strips onto the backs of books which are moved past a rotating glue application roller. A gauze strip is fed into a cutting tool from a supply roll by means of a pair of feed rollers and cut into strips of the desired width. The strips are consecutively pressed onto an inclined conveyor which brings then into contact with the backs of the moving books.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS This invention relates to a device for cutting and gluing gauze strips on the reverse side of book pads. The pads are advanced longitudinally, with their backs facing downward, by means of a continually driven plate transport chain past a rotating glue application roller. Such a device is used in machine bookbinding after the layers of a book have been fastened together and when the book pad, held together only by the binding threads, continues to be further strengthened along its back by the application of glue and a gauze strip, thereby making the book more resistant for frequent use.

The clamping and movement of the book pads, with the backs facing downwardly, proved to be necessary in gluing the backs of the book in order to prevent a glue application from visibly soaking the paper sides. In addition, a thin coat of glue may be applied as a preliminary measure which, after it has partly set, serves to isolate a subsequently applied heavier glue coat from the paper sides. In known devices, pre-cut gauze strips are pressed against the back of the book pad from below. To accomplish this, several fingers are employed which run laterally to the length of the book, with the gauze strip resting on the fingers. In order not to damage the back of the book when the gauze strips are applied, the fingers are adapted to press the gauze on very lightly. The glue must first be applied with sutficient force so that it will subsequently maintain the gauze strip securely and firmly in place. For this, hot glue of animal origin may be used as well as synthetic glues, though the latter type of glues are preferred in bookbinding. Another disadvantage of the prior art gauze application devices is the necessary intermittent work procedure which results from the pressing motion that runs perpendicular to the book feeding direction. This intermittent work procedure serves to limit the work output of such devices.

In order to eliminate the disadvantages of prior art devices, the present invention is distinguished by a pair of feeder rollers which, in coordination with the moving book ipads, pushes sections of gauze material from a supply roll into a cutting tool that is arranged below the moving track of book pads. This cutting tool has a hold-down device in the form of a press pad which is elastically supported in relation to an upper knife above a lower stripper plate. It is furthermore distinguished by a conveyor belt which runs at an acute angle, inclined below the backs of the book pads. The upper extension of this conveyor belt is directed tangentially against the glue Patented Mar. 14, 1972 application roller and its lower guide roller is arranged in the cutting tool next to the stripper plate, below an overhanging section of the press pad. The essential advantage of this device consists in the continuous working procedure possible with the speed being alterable as desired within rather broad limits, without impairing the accuracy of the gauze application. On the other hand, the continuous working procedure and the pressing of the gauze strip with the aid of the glue application roller makes it possible to use synthetic resin glue which is uniformly distributed over the entire gauze strip and which is sufficient to secure the retention of the gauze strip even though the initial adhesive force may be small.

Preferably, the axes of the pair of feeder rollers and of the gauze supply roller should run penpendicular to the axes of the conveyor belt guide rollers, whereby the width of the gauze supply roller roughly corresponds to the length of the back of the book. This aids in increasing the working speed of the device which is essentially determined by the sum of the times required for the feeding of the gauze supply, for cutting, and for the opening of the cutting tool. In the arrangement proposed above only, a minimum of time is necessary for the feeding of a further gauze strip width into the cutting tool. Such period of time is less than would be needed if the gauze were to be wound up longitudinally.

The overhanging or protruding section of the downholding device or press pad carries an elastically supported plate for pressing the cut gauze strip against the conveyor belt in the area of the lower guide roller. In this way, the gauze strip may be extracted from the tool by the conveyor belt immediately after the termination of the cutting process.

In order to increase the working speed of the device even further, the press pad of the cutting tool is provided, in the feeding direction in front of the press plate, with a downwardly open recess. This recess is above the interval between the lower guide roller and the stripper plate and serves to receive a pin which is arranged lateral ly to the feeding direction. This pin can be briefly moved downward, by means of a drive in cooperative connection with the cutting process so that the gauze strip, gripped at its forward end by the conveyor belt, will be rawn by its rear end out of the adjacent smooth surfaces of the press pad and the stripper plate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The device is described in detail below with the aid of an example illustrated in the figures as follows:

FIG. 1 represents a side view of the device, with a partial schematic sectional -view, and

,FIG. 2 is a perpendicular cross-sectional view through the cutting tool, along line A--A in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In accordance with FIG. 1, the book pads, indicated at 10, are moved, with their backs 11 arranged downwardly by means of a plate transport chain (not shown) which comes to rest against the book pads from both sides, in the direction of arrow 12, past a glue application roller 13 which rests on an axle 14. The roller has its own drive. Its circumferential speed can be controlled and corresponds to the speed of the book pads. Roller 13, which may be covered by a sponge-like coating, is partly dipped into a trough 15 that is filled with glue. In accordance with FIG. 2, a length of gauze material, whose width corresponds to the length of the gauze strips to be cut, is moved into a cutting tool 18, from a supply roller (not shown) by means of a pair of feeder rollers 16 and guide channel 17, in coordination with the frequency of movement of the book pads 10 being guided through the device. The supply roller, the feeder rollers, and channel 17 in FIG. 1 are shown above the drawing plane whereby channel 17 is roughly on the level of the interval between the upper press pad 19 and the lower stripper plate 20, visible in FIG. 1. The press pad 19 is resiliently supported by two guide stays 21 with springs 22 against an upper tool plate 23. The lower stripper plate 20 is likewise supported resiliently by means of guide stays 24 and springs 25, in a lower tool plate 26 which is fixedly attached to a frame or foundation (not shown). On the upper tool plate 23 an upper knife 27 is provided and on the lower tool plate 26 a corresponding, fixed lower knife 28 is also provided.

After the gauze strip G has been introduced into the cutting tool 18, in accordance with FIG. 2, the upper tool plate 23 is moved downwardly by means of hydraulic or pneumatic activating devices (not shown), whereby press pad 19 comes to rest on the gauge on stripper plate 20. Since the force of springs 22 is less than that of springs 25, the press pad and its guide stays 21 are pushed through the tool plate 23 thereby engaging knives 27 and 28, If immediately after the cut has been made, the press pad 19 contacts the upper tool plate 23 as the latter continues to move downwardly, the lower stripper plate 24 also moves downwardly against the force of spring 25. Specifically, the press pad is moved until a pressing plate 31, which is elastically arranged on a forward prolongation 30 of the pad 19, presses the end of the cut gauze strip, lying immediately below, against a conveyor belt 32 which in this area is guided precisely over a guide roller 33. Be cause conveyor belt 32 and pressing plate 31 have a greater surface roughness, with a correspondingly higher coefficient of friction, than the smooth-wall surfaces of the upper press pad 19 and the lower stripper plate 20, the gauze strip 31 is necessarily picked up by conveyor belt 32 which moves in the direction of the arrow.

Conveyor belt 32 is endless and is returned at its upper end by a guide roller 34. The conveyor belt runs at an acute angle in the feeding direction toward book backs 11 and is prolonged in the vicinity of glue application roller 13 by a guide plate 35. Above conveyor belt 32 we have a press-on or hold-down rail 36 which is held laterally against conveyor belt 32 with the aid of elastic biased means such as springs 37, so that the gauze strip coming out of cutting tool 18 can be brought up the conveyor without slippage in coordination with the moving books. The press-on rail is preferably equipped with a coating consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene or similar material. Below the upper end piece of the conveyor belt which moves the gauze strip, a supporting rail (not shown) is provided in order to prevent the conveyor belt from sagging and in order to guarantee the uniform contact of the upper down-holding rail 36.

In order to further increase the working speed of the device, additional means is provided which extracts the gauze strip from the cutting tool immediately after it has been trimmed, so that, after the out has been made, the next feed length can be very quickly moved into the tool from the supply station in accordance with the width of one gauze strip. This additional means consists of a lateral pin 40, indicated in FIG. 1, which, in the working position shown here for the tool, is located in arecess 41 of the hold-down device 19. The lateral pin 40 is above the gauze strip in the tool and is so connected with a drive mechanism (not shown) that it will be briefly moved moved downwardly along the direction of dot-dash line 42, along the downward pointing arrow, as soon as presson plate 31 comes to rest upon conveyor belt 32 and as soon as the gauze strip has been drawn into the crack between hold-down rail 36 and conveyor belt 2. The lateral pin 40 is immediately moved upward again, before the next gauze strip to be cut off is moved into the cutting tool. This alone makes it possible to attach the gauze strips to the books consecutively, almost one after the other, because the next gauze strip can already be running in above the preceding strip. The interval of operation of the pins.

4 drive mechanism may be adjusted by an instrument (not shown) which can be controlled by photocells or other suitable means well known in the art.

I claim:

1. A device for cutting and gluing gauze strips onto the backs of book pads which device comprises, in combination:

(a) means for continuously advancing said book pads longitudinally with said backs of said books pads facing downwardly,

(b) means for continuously applying glue to the backs of said advancing book pads,

(c) cutting means for cutting gauze strips,

(d) means for feeding gauze material into said cutting means in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said advancing book pads whereby said gauze material may be cut into strips,

(e) an elastically supported upper press pad means associated with said cutting means for holding down said gauze material being fed into said cutting means,

(f) conveying means adapted to continuously convey in an upwardly inclined direction said cut strips from said cutting means onto said backs of said advancing book pads, and

(g) an overhanging section means associated with said upper press pad means for pressing said strips against said conveying means.

2. A device for cutting and gluing gauze strips onto the backs of book pads which device comprises, in combination:

(a) means for continuously advancing said book pads longitudinally with said backs of said book pads facing downwardly,

(b) means for continuously applying glue to the backs of said advancing book pads,

(0) cutting means for cutting gauze strips,

(d) means for feeding gauze material into said cutting means in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said advancing book pads whereby said gauze material may be cut into strips,

(e) an elastically supported upper press pad means associated with said cutting means for holding down said gauze material being fed into said cutting means,

(f) conveying means adapted to continuously convey in an upwardly inclined direction said out strips from said cutting means onto said backs of said advancing book pads, and

(g) recess means associated with said upper press pad means in which said recess means has located therein a pin means for extracting said gauze strip from between said upper press pad means.

3. A device for cutting and gluing gauze strips onto the backs of book pads which device comprises, in combination:

(a) means for continuously advancing said book pads longiditudinally with said backs of said book pads facing downwardly,

(b) means for continuously applying glue to the backs of said advancing book pads,

(c) cutting means for cutting gauze strips,

(d) means for feeding gauze material into said cutting means in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said advancing book pads whereby said gauze material may be cut into strips,

(e) elastically supported means associated with said cutting means for holding down said gauze material being fed into said cutting means, and

(f) conveying means comprising an inclined conveyor belt, a hold down rail means for pressing said cut strips against said conveyor belt, and a guide plate adapted to guide said cut strips into said glue applying means and concurrently onto the backs of said book pads.

4. The device as set forth in claim 3 in which said gauze material feeding means comprises a pair of feeder rollers and a guide channel.

5. The device as set forth in claim 3 in which said rail means is elastically biased against said conveyor belt.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Murray 156-521 Ackley a- 156-521 Wales 83-140 Sieb 156-517 5 BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner D. A. BENT, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 15 6-25 6 

